Medical articles, such as gloves and other elastomeric articles, often come into contact with liquids and fluids during their use. Such articles form a barrier between the user's skin and the external environment. Medical gloves, such as examination gloves and surgical gloves are examples of articles used in the healthcare setting, and they play a key role in minimizing the spread of infectious diseases. Such articles are used frequently by health care professionals. Therefore, it is important for medical articles such as gloves to provide an effective barrier, while providing an adequate level of comfort to the user. On the other hand, an uncoated latex article, such as a surgical glove, can have poor lubricity making it difficult for the user to don the glove, e.g., place the glove on a human hand, in both wet donning (e.g., donning the glove when the skin is damp) and dry donning (e.g., donning the glove when the skin is dry). Thus, the application of a coating to these elastomeric articles can be used to provide a smooth and non-tacky inner skin-contacting surface, e.g., to facilitate donning the article to which the coating has been applied. These coated articles also preferably have a coating that does not flake off.
It is known in the art to utilize lubricants or other coatings on rubber and synthetic latex products, such as surgical gloves, condoms, finger cots, catheters, probe covers, ureters, and the like, for enhancing the lubricity of the product when it comes into contact with the skin of the user. One such approach was to utilize lubricants that included powders, such as calcium carbonate and corn starch, applied to the inner skin-contacting surface of a surgical glove to ease donning of the glove. However, powdered lubricants can be unfavorable due to the risk of the powdered lubricant leaking out of the interior of the glove and contaminating the surgical field. Moreover, certain starch powders can be carriers of latex allergens that can cause latex allergies in some users of the gloves.
In other approaches, a lubricant coating is applied to the interior surface of the glove that does not contain a powder. In one instance, a polymeric coating, such as a hydrogel coating, can be applied to the glove. Where a hydrogel coating is applied to the glove, it is often provided in a solvent medium, such as ethanol, to maintain the polymers in solution. The use of a solvent system in a polymer solution is undesirable because the solvent is typically expensive, can create a fire hazard and provides a waste disposal issue making it not environmentally friendly. Moreover, the solvent-based hydrogel polymer solutions tend to have a short pot-life, e.g., of only a few weeks, in which the solution must be used and applied as a coating.
In addition to the formulation of these hydrogel coatings containing unfavorable solvent-based systems, the method of application of these solvent-based systems can provide expensive and onerous steps. In particular, prior to application of the polymeric coating to the surface of the glove, for example, the latex or rubber is heat dried and then further treated with a chemical priming step to prepare the rubber or latex surface for receiving the hydrogel polymer solvent-based coating. The chemical priming step can include dipping the rubber or latex article in an acid solution or other harsh chemical prior to the subsequent dip in the coating solution. Following dipping in acid or other harsh chemical, the article is rinsed to remove any residual acid or chemical. The use of a chemical priming step in a glove coating process provides an additional, undesirable step that is time consuming and expensive. Moreover, the acid or chemical used during the priming step must also be later disposed of, creating an additional waste disposal step and providing an added cost.
After application of the solvent-based hydrogel coating, an additional process step is needed to dispose of the solvent waste. Since the solvent is not environmentally friendly it requires special treatment prior to disposal. Moreover, extra precautions and steps need to be taken to make the process fire-proof to prevent any ignition from the flammable solvents being used with the hydrogel solution.
A need, therefore, exists for a water-based hydrogel coating for elastomeric articles.